


Lovers, Keep on the Road You're On

by AvaCelt



Series: Gintama Prompt Fills [23]
Category: Gintama
Genre: Cross-Posted on Tumblr, M/M, Originally Posted on Tumblr, Prompt Fill
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-25
Updated: 2016-03-25
Packaged: 2018-05-29 02:39:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 892
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6355594
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AvaCelt/pseuds/AvaCelt
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kouka fell in love with Kankou, so the universe punished her with a bloody cough up until the moment she died. Kamui fell in love with Shinsuke, and just like that, history begins to repeat itself.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lovers, Keep on the Road You're On

**Author's Note:**

> Written for "Character Whump Fic Meme." Originally posted on my [Tumblr writing blog](http://victorsandvanquishers.tumblr.com/post/141590681135/character-whump-2-for-takamui) and now being archived here for the A03 writing community.
> 
> Title from "Lovers in Japan" by Coldplay. Can be listened to here [(x)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTFFQkdhw6Q).

Shinsuke doesn't know how Kamui manages to survive, but he does. Kamui's a fighter. He's vicious, uncouth, but most of all, he's slick. He's slick enough to survive a battle with Shinsuke's father, and he's slick enough to survive a battle with his own father, the galaxy's most celebrated alien hunter. For all intents and purposes, Kamui's a piece of trash, but to Shinsuke, he's an _admirable_ piece of trash- an admirable piece of trash he's married to.

Three months since the battles in Rakuyou, and Kamui still jolts awake at three in the morning and paints their blankets with bright red blood. Most of the time, Shinsuke's body jolts awake with the disturbance, but sometimes- sometimes Shinsuke will woke up at a normal time and see his husband barely breathing and his right and left hands shaking with globs of crusty red blood. The first time it happened, Shinsuke had began frantically screaming at Kamui to wake up, flashing back to a moment twelve years ago when he'd screamed for Gintoki to stop, going into a violent rage when members of both the Kiheitai and Yato collective tried holding him back while the medical unit strapped Kamui to a gurney and began to roll him out of their shared bedroom. Abuto had gotten a black eye and Bansai had to order a new pair of headphones, but Shinsuke still ended up by Kamui's side.

That was the first time. Now, it's the eighth or ninth time, but the coughs have gotten lighter. Shinsuke wakes up today to a little blood in the corner of Kamui's mouth and a slight spray of darkened red on his sleeping tunic. Shinsuke gets up, wets a hand towel, and wipes the blood away from Kamui's mouth before kissing his forehead.

“I might be going like my mother,” Kamui tells him truthfully one evening. They're gazing out at the sea, Kamui's head resting in Shinsuke's lap as Shinsuke massages Kamui's scalp. “When it happens, please bury me next to her.”

There's no “if” attached, and six months from the day the Rakuyou battles ended, Kamui stops breathing altogether. Instead of screaming and slashing people with his sword in a torrent of fury, Shinsuke takes a deep breath and calls for the medical bay, sits with Kamui as they rush in and poke and prod him with breathing tubes and needles, and doesn't let go of his hand until Bansai and Matako burst into tears. Shinsuke watches them take Kamui into surgery, and Shinsuke stills. Death is such a cunt sometimes.

Gintoki, Tatsuma, and Zura show up sometime within the next few hours. His father-in-law and his sister-in-law slip in later, loud and brash, but their eyes glaze over with a palpable fear as they stare at the red light signaling the surgery room. The girl, Kagura, she doesn't talk or eat. Umibozu, Shinsuke suspects, has mentally descended to hell as the surgery takes up the better part of the day.

Shinsuke himself loses track of time, but unlike the Kiheitai and Yato members, Zura, Tatsuma, and Gintoki don't push him. Instead, they sit with him, speak in soft tones, tell Shinsuke that his asshole husband will make it through, and if he doesn't, there's surely a gateway to hell somewhere in this godforsaken universe that they can break down and go through to rescue Kamui. Tatsuma's laughs are soft, Zura's advice funnier than usual. Gintoki falls asleep on his shoulder, tells him to brush his teeth, and then falls asleep on his shoulder again.

When the doctors come out, Shinsuke's made his peace that he'll follow Kamui wherever he goes, because the loneliness is too much now. He's twenty-eight and his father is dead, and if his husband dies too, then he may as well say goodbye now.

“He needed a lung transplant. There's no trace of toxic Altana in his blood. But, Shinsuke-sama, please tell him to stay off the battlefield for another six months. If his stitches tear, he'll start coughing up blood again.”

It's a momentous occasion, for all intents and purposes. Kamui's not going the way his mother went, and when his father-in-law breaks down in sobs, Shinsuke doesn't quite know how to comfort him. When Kamui becomes available for visitation, he lets his sister-in-law and father-in-law go in first so they can hold his hand and kiss his forehead and say things Shinsuke still doesn't know if he has to right to listen to. After they step out, Shinsuke goes into, gets into Kamui's hospital bed, and falls asleep next to him.

A month after that, Kamui stops waking up in the middle of the night with blood in his mouth. Instead, he wakes up Shinsuke for a kiss.

“You would have buried me next to my mother, right?” Kamui asks him one night.

“Probably not,” Shinsuke admits truthfully. “I'd want you close, so probably somewhere I could visit often.” Shinsuke doesn't tell him that he planned on joining Kamui soon if Kamui had passed away during surgery.

Kamui nods thoughtfully before wrapping his arm and leg around Shinsuke's body. Shinsuke feels the warm chest thaw his cold back.

“There's so much of hell left to tour,” Kamui mumbles tiredly, nuzzling Shinsuke's neck.

Shinsuke finds himself smiling. “Of course.”

Nine months after the battles in Rakuyou, Shinsuke learns to breathe again.

 


End file.
